Saturday, June 22, 2002

mikl's socca madness con-tinues

...but frankly at a less intense pace. The US and England were elminated in one evening. And since Ireland was already knocked out, that means that I have gone from 4 of my favorites being in the final 16, to 3 in the last 8, to only 1 in the final 4. That last was Turkey who are out now as well. :(

Survival Research Labs put on a show to close the evening. SRL had a giant Tesla coil, a gracefully lumbering machine called Running Man, a thing like an unfolded idiot box out of water that flip-flops along (I would call it Jacob's Elevator Shaft, but I doubt they thought of that) with some anime-esque illustration on one side and something I don't recall on the other, and another behemoth of some sort. At any rate it was a lot of fun. About halfway through a forklift brought forth a steaming barrel and poured it into a giant junk petri dish. What came out was a molten flesh-colored substance that inside sources say is a homemade version of "silly putty", the recipie for which is available on Nickelodeon's website, rumor has it. All the machines (except the Tesla Coil) gathered round and dipped what woulda maybe been their probiscuses in the hardening goo. much fun was had by all.

For me there was an exciting contrast with the first time I ever saw an SRL show (1995's Crime Wave) which was right after I moved to San Francisco. That was a much bigger show--this was after all just a small demonstration for the wanna-be Oscars of the internet's first post-boom year--and I was very excited to be there, having heard SRL's legend long before moving to this city. And I was okay getting the few glimpses that I did amongst a gigantic crowd for the event. Last night I had ringside seats, hanging out with my friends that were working on the show. Being amongst it, not just spectating. This town is an incredible world.

Tuesday, June 18, 2002

an update because I haven't posted in so long. I am still obsessed with World Cup. And in fact I'm pretty pleased with
how the round of 8 has shaped up--pretty much everyone that I wanted (including the US, England & Turkey) have made it to the quarter finals.

tonight I am going to the webbies which is kinda weird, and hopefully will be fun. The last time I went was as part of bianca in 1998. I had different hair back then.

Monday, June 03, 2002

I stayed up late tonight watching the world cup live.
Yes, I'm indulging in the time benefits of being unemployed.
If you don't know the Cup is being played in Korea & Japan this year and so most of the games start at 2:30AM or 4:30AM. Tonight one started at 11:30pm (Mexico vs. Croatia), so I started watching it and kept on to the next game (Brazil vs. Turkey).

I have found BBC's coverage to be very helpful, where New York Times was, not surprisingly, a bit wanting. SO I went BBC which has a full profile on every player of every team. It would be nice if they listed the player's jersey numbers, so that I could look up who I was watching without waiting for them to turn around so that I can see their names. Oh, did I mention that the only channel I can watch the games on (since I don't have cable) is a Spanish language one? It's fun when someone scores a goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal, but in general it's pretty uninformative for mono-lingual me.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about the Brazil vs. Turkey game which is on as I write. The Turks are really impressing me. Playing with a lot of heart against one of the most talented and high profile teams in the entire World Cup finals. The BBC coverage while the game is in progress makes it sound much more one-sided than it has been.. Turkey has played them eye-to-eye in a very rough and tumble game. They have not been intimidated and have had the stamina to play Brazil step-for-step, never letting up.

Their goal keeper's play in particular has been terrific--he is a solid unflinching competitor. What mistakes he has made, matters of instants and inches he has the benefit of a long frame and quick reflexes to recover from. A real pleasure to watch. The ref on the other hand has lost control of the game a bit--and Brazil is all too eager to tell him how he should call the game and subvert his authority when he doesn't strongly exert it.

*sigh*, case in point, just now, with a couple minutes left there was a red card and penalty in the box called on Turkey which was completley bunk--the ref just kinda took Brazil's word (and acting) for it. They scored and that's a shitty way for this game to be decided (it's now 2-1, Brazil will surely win).

O shit. And it just got even worse. with another red card. You will probably read about it. I'll link it tomorrow when there's a chance. Really not a classy way to win for Brazil against a worthy opponent.

Turkey will have a difficult time now making it to the next round (not sure how good China or Costa Rica are). They should protest the ref's calls, if they can, that was nonsense. I look forward to watching Turkey play again; they can play a tough game. Brazil has some great players who want to win at any cost, but I hope that they have referees with a bit more backbone and skepticism in the rest of the tournament. And I hope they get knocked out as soon as possible.

Meanwhile another game is about to start and I am NOT going to watch it. G'nite.